By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday said it had reached a settlement with General Motors Co to resolve the department’s allegation that the automaker discriminated against non-U.S. citizens.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Detroit-based company will pay $365,000 in civil penalties to the United States, the Justice Department said in a statement.
GM in a statement said it had cooperated with the investigation and was committed to a discrimination-free workplace.
“There was no formal determination that GM engaged in discrimination and we make no admission of wrongdoing, but we welcome this resolution as an opportunity both to avoid litigation and to refine and clarify our internal administrative processes to further improve the employee experience,” GM spokeswoman Maria Raynal said in an email.
A Justice Department investigation found that until at least September 2021, GM’s export compliance assessments unnecessarily required lawful permanent residents to provide an unexpired foreign passport as a condition of employment, imposing a discriminatory barrier on them in the hiring process, the department said.
The agreement reached on Tuesday requires GM to train its personnel on the law’s requirements, revise its employment policies and be subject to monitoring and reporting requirements.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Bill Berkrot)
